Defund the universities
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and if they want to get scalped by tuition lenders, let ‘em
Arizona University will now require four “diversity” courses to graduate*
In a move its own Diversity Curriculum Committee has heralded as “unprecedented,” Northern Arizona University will soon mandate students take four diversity, equity and inclusion courses grounded in “critical theory” to earn a degree.
The new grad requirement is scheduled to take effect in 2024 at the large public university, located in the progressive city of Flagstaff and enrolling some 29,000 students.
The four diversity courses must come from the categories of “global diversity,” “indigenous peoples,” “intersectional identities,” and “U.S. ethnic diversity,” according to an internal memo from campus administrators.
The 12 credits of diversity requirements were approved in October 2021 as part of the university’s updated General Studies Program, reported John Sailor in City Journal.
“These Diversity Perspectives courses must … embrace the philosophical underpinning of identity politics,” reported Sailor, a research associate at the National Association of Scholars.
“According to notes from the university’s Liberal Studies Committee, foreign language courses fail to qualify for diversity designation. Why? ‘Because they do not incorporate critical theory which the [Diversity Curriculum Committee] expects of the courses it approves.’”
The course requirements are the implementation of a Diversity Strategic Plan drafted in Fall 2020 which “focuses and prioritizes the university’s attention and resources around diversity, inclusion, and a culturally competent environment for all.”
While the plan called for an increase of 20 percent of students taking DEI courses, the General Studies requirements approved by the Arizona Board of Regents on October 1, 2021 apply to all students.
Arizona taxpayers’ state funding for Northern Arizona University comes in at more than $132 million annually.
*Sample:
Intersectional Movements of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality promises to analyze “how intersectionality, and the matrix of inequality, have shaped the production of knowledge” and to provide “a critical lens through which intersectional epistemologies can be foregrounded.” Another, Introduction to Queer Studies, covers “queer theory and activism,” the “social and historical construction of gender and sexuality,” and the “role of allies and social change.” Trans Existence and Resilience, meantime, promises to “examine trans epistemologies as well as critiques of Eurocentric models of thinking about genders that explain peoples’ existence within Western frameworks and ontologies.”
